Internal combustion engines, including diesel engines, gasoline engines, gaseous fuel-powered engines, and other engines known in the art exhaust a complex mixture of air pollutants. These air pollutants may be composed of gaseous compounds such as, for example, the oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Due to increased awareness of the environment, exhaust emission standards have become more stringent, and the amount of NOx emitted from an engine may be regulated depending on the type of engine, size of engine, and/or class of engine. As the exhaust emission standards become more stringent, guidelines regarding engine operation outside of the emission regulations are being contemplated.
One such guideline may include requiring deactivation of an engine when the exhaust emissions from the engine exceed a threshold, and preventing operation of the engine thereafter until the threshold can been cleared. One example is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,329 (the '329 patent) by Trobert patented on Jan. 23, 1979. The '329 patent discloses a system that includes sensing elements that are responsive to respective engine operating conditions, such as exhaust emissions, to provide a signal when the respective conditions are adverse to the proper operation of the engine, such as when exhaust emissions exceed certain thresholds. If a condition exceeds a threshold, such as a regulatory limit, a warning indication is given to the operator and a timer is started. At the termination of the timer, the engine is disabled.
Although the apparatus of the '329 patent may suitably prevent excessive amounts of NOx from being expelled to the environment, it may be problematic. For example, a vehicle could become inconveniently stranded, costing the owner of the vehicle considerable time and resources. It may also create a safety issue, if an operator is prevented from controlling the machine or equipment properly. Furthermore, the apparatus of the '329 patent relies only on the currently sensed engine operating parameter and is, thus, a reactive system that only operates after a limit has been exceeded rather than preventing the limit from being exceeded.
The system of the present disclosure solves one or more of the problems set forth above.